The post My 2014 NewCo SF Schedule: Hard Choices appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog. As I did last year, I picked my NewCo San Francisco schedule early, so I could prepare in advance of the festival this September 10-12.

If you want to get pumped up before a big event, what type of music should you choose? Music has already been shown to have all kinds of effects on the mind, like making you happier, reducing pain and bringing people together.

The most difficult part of personal knowledge mastery is developing a sense-making routine. A recent academic paper from the Association for Psychological Science examined various methods to improve learning.

One day event in London, UK on 12 September 2014: Writing research proposals and publications. This is free for members of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information professional''s (CILIP) Information Literacy Group or the CILIP Library and Information Research Group (LIRG).

In the world of product development and software development, customers often come to you with a request for specific things. "It should be green with four wheels." or "Build me a web site to sell my origami." or "It should work just like Google." The thing is, these are specifications or requirements. They could describe just about anything, and often the result doesn''t quite do what the customer was thinking of. Why Why is that? . MORE >>

New study finds that changing your mindset during learning directly impacts what you recall. Dr Jeremy Dean is a psychologist and author of PsyBlog. His latest book is "Making Habits, Breaking Habits: How to Make Changes That Stick". Related articles: You Can Learn a New Language While You Sleep, Study Finds. Humming in Sync: How Our Brains Can Learn So Quickly. Rethinking The Stress Mindset: Can You Find The Upside of Pressure? How We Learn: Reading and Math Ability Driven By The Same Genes. MORE >>

This is the third of a six post series on the architecture and culture of Amsterdam. This summer I was there for a few days in May on my way to Samos Greece and then for a week’s stay on my return form Samos. I learned from a Dutch friend of direct charters from Amsterdam to Samos so we decided to make it our transfer port. I was moved by the many beautiful canals of this city that lives well with water. MORE >>

An interesting Masters dissertation: "This study examines the use of Wikipedia across a broad range of judicial and administrative bodies within New Zealand. The primary focus of the study is the use of Wikipedia in courts (and other legally influential bodies) and how this affects the way that information literacy is taught in legal studies, particularly with regards to Wikipedia and other similar internet-based resources." Maher, D. MORE >>

A while ago, I argued for an activity-based curriculum. The The point was to rebel against the usual content-based curriculum, and push us to more meaningful learning. And, of late, I’ve had a chance to reexamine both the curriculum ideas, and the pedagogical implications. So I’ve been in a situation where I’ve been handed a curriculum already developed, and the content is already being fleshed out. MORE >>